Speaking of that, rumor has it FOX will hold The Following to midseason. So the only serial kill show actually launching in the fall is also the one I happen to like best: CW's Cult. That should help it out some, no competition in that particular genre in the fall.

It was being said a month or so ago that Cult, if picked up, as it now has been, would have a midseason launch and be designed to have 13-episode seasons to maintain tight storytelling. Has there been news to the contrary?

Just watched a clip of The Following...errgh, not quite as cool as I'd hoped. Maybe Cult will tackle this premise better, and it does look like the premises are almost entirely the same...serial killer on the loose who is using the internet (oh that dastardly internet!) to induce others to become serial killers, too.

The key here is, I want there to be a good reason these people are imitating the serial killer, and not just because they are dopes with no life. I can't stand stories that use stupidity as a motivator for characters. I'd much rather there be some zany sci fi explanation, the guy is a Goa'uld and he's controlling everyone's minds!!!

Cult isn't really a serial killer show, and its premise is quite different to and much more complicated than that of The Following. Cult is about a TV show about a cult leader with a following of brainwashed minions who do his bidding. This TV show in turn has a rabid cult following of fans. When real life starts to imitate the TV show there's an open question as to whether it's a case of crazed fans playing copycat or whether the show has some kind of supernatural effect on reality. Robert Knepper is playing an actor named Roger Reeves who plays Billy Grimm, the cult leader, on the TV show.

After a rash of disappearances and a likely murder, an inquisitive, young female production assistant on a wildly popular television show called “Cult” joins a journalist blogger in investigating the rabid fans of the series who might be re-creating crimes seen on the program, in real life.

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And from The Daily Beast:

There's a show-within-the-show which is also called Cult, and which may be linked to the deaths and disappearances of several people who watch the show, viewers who become obsessed with the show's Lost-like mythology and the central figure, Billy Grimm (Robert Knepper). But Billy Grimm is just a character, played by actor Roger Reeves. Right? Or he is a disembodied boogeyman? Or are people preying on Cult viewers and driving them insane? These are some of the questions raised within the pilot episode, in which blogger Jeff Sefton (Matthew Davis) investigates the disappearance of his Cult-obsessed brother and teams up with a production assistant (Jessica Lucas) who works on the show in order to uncover just what is going on.

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If there are multiple suspected murders, then this is serial killing. Maybe it's also serial-other-crimes as well - kidnapping, torture - I won't begrudge them that, they need to fill a lot of episodes. Given that they cast Robert Knepper as the mastermind, they won't be holding back on the heinousness of the crimes, because he's the go-to guy for psychos.

In both shows, the problem is the same: how to make this premise work without turning the cult members into dolts or zombies? Either the writing needs to be fiendishly clever or they should go for a supernatural or sci fi angle, even lightly.

Cult anyway sounds like it's going to get trippy, which is why I think it'll be more successful. The Following looks like it'll get dull and repetitious pretty fast. Maybe people aren't being killed, but spirited away to another dimension? Sure, count me in!

The only property from Disney-owned Marvel still in active development at ABC is Hulk, which was set up one and half years ago with Guillermo Del Toro and David Eick attached. Lee said the project will be in consideration for the next pilot cycle. I hear Del Toro is still on board.

In both shows, the problem is the same: how to make this premise work without turning the cult members into dolts or zombies?

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I think the solution is obvious, and pretty much there in the premise:

Make them fans.

Putting the 'fan' back into 'fan'atic, after all. Take the crazy obsessiveness people can have over a TV show, and then just use those kind of personalities going murderous. (Copycat killing, then we see the fans afterwards critiquing it as if it's a bit of fan fiction that got some of the continuity wrong.) It could be pretty fun.

"The Hulk is in development," said Lee. "It wasn't going to be ready for this season, but we hope it will be ready for next season. We would like to see some Marvel projects move to television."

Lee also revealed that another Marvel project - AKA Jessica Jones - has stalled at the network.

"We did not pick it up for this season [and] we have another development which is further at the front of the queue," he said.

Other Marvel series may also be adapted for television by ABC Studios, but Lee refused to confirm specifics.

"We've got some in development, but none that I can talk about at this point," he explained. "Of course, we're immensely proud to be in a company with The Avengers and... we're going to continue to develop aggressively."

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That makes sense, since OUaT began life inspired by Disney's fairy tale movie tradition. Now Marvel is Disney's pet.

They should do Dr. Strange - great synergy with OUaT and 666 Park Ave! Kick Revenge out of the 9pm Sunday slot and sub in the Sorcerer Supreme!!!

Last Resort and Revolution are by far the most interesting looking of next Fall's crop. But both look so front loaded and expensive that they are going to have to pull great ratings to survive.

Plus(and it is just speculation) I very much doubt either show really has a concrete idea what they are going to do after their big expensive pilot episodes. Last Resort especially does not seem like a show that can sustain that premise for very long. At least not if it hopes to maintain the sense of realism that the trailer indicated.

Last Resort especially is one where I wonder, how far did they think this through? If Andre Braugher is aghast at the idea of killing innocents, his nukes aren't much of a threat. I can't imagine how he'd be able to find a target that's guaranteed to hit only "the bad people who are behind all of this."

Also: didn't he know that taking orders to nuke a country, no questions asked, would be a possible part of the job when he took it?

TNT - The Last Ship – In this exciting action/adventure project based on the popular novel by William Brinkley, the crew of a naval destroyer is forced to confront the reality of a new existence when a pandemic decimates most of the earth’s population. Michael Bay (Transformers) intends to direct the pilot if it is green lit.

TBS- Zone Lord – Conan O’Brien serves as executive producer on this sitcom with an intergalactic twist. Three roommates awake one morning to discover an evil but very hip alien has moved into their building, along with his diminutive navigator.

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Zone Lord sounds like it could be fun, depending on casting.

As for tone, we won't be getting TNT mixed up with AMC anytime soon:

At TNT, whatever the form or genre, we’re using what we call the ‘popcorn mindset’ as the guiding principle behind all our development

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And that goes double for TBS:

TBS’s original series are being developed to be compatible with the cable network’s two marquee off-network acquisitions, The Big Bang Theory and Family Guy.

The show sounds like a sure thing, with the boss touting it already, but from what I can deduce, it won't appear till Summer 2013? I was hoping to see it sooner than that.

Frank Darabont's L.A. Noir isn't ready to be ordered as a series, but [TNT/TBS president/head of programming Michael] Wright expects to air it on Sundays, where the network is specializing in genre shows like Falling Skies.

As part of both networks [TBS and TNT] going to a year-round schedule in 2013, TNT we've been focusing on two pretty specific areas. Just as L.A. Noir is a Sunday night genre show meant to go after that dual gender, younger audience we have on the weekend, and our procedurals are targeted more to mid-week, a little bit older and more female. We're taking a similar approach with our unscripted stuff. We've been chasing two different categories for our first efforts. Big, cinematic exciting competition shows for Sunday night and unscripted dramas in the crime and mystery space for mid-week.